Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rethinking Land Use After Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe: A Clustering Approach

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Land Tenure Challenges in Africa

Part of the book series: Economic Geography ((ECOGEO))

  • 330 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter shows that the entrance of tobacco contract farming firms in Zimbabwe led to an increase in the number of farmers, production, and area of land under tobacco cultivation. However, this milestone achievement in the growth of smallholder production was mired by neglect of environmental issues which threatens viability and sustainability of smallholder tobacco production. Tobacco contract firms, as lead firms provided capital, technical know-how and markets which attracted farmers and other actors into tobacco production and support services, resulting in a vibrant tobacco cluster. This changed smallholder land use patterns, which paradoxically, were accompanied by low land utilization due the negligible proportion of tobacco hectarage compared to staple crops. The lead firms neglected ecological sound production techniques. We show this using the cluster theory, primary data gathered by the author, secondary sources from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board and historical evidence from settler tobacco production districts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Lead firms are viewed here as agribusinesses (also known as contracting firms) who provide the necessary agricultural technologies, capital, market access and other related services which help attract other actors like farmers, transport providers, researchers, input suppliers, and others to the support and production of a particular crop. Ingstrup (2014) provides the same characterization for the development of industry clusters.

  2. 2.

    The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board classifies farmers into four categories, namely A1, A2, communal and small-scale commercial farmers. A1 and A2 are farmers who got land under the FTLRP, who hold 6 ha and more than 6 ha respectively, with the latter considered commercial. The small-scale commercial farmers got their land during the 1980s Lancaster House led land reform programme. All these categories of farmers produce tobacco for export.

References

  • Agency Report (2019) Zimbabwe’s 2019 tobacco production hits record high. Premium Times. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/foreign/africa/348308-zimbabwes-2019-tobacco-production-hits-record-high.html. Accessed 24 Aug 2019

  • Andrew M, Ainslie A, Shackleton C (2003) Land use and livelihoods. Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town (Evaluating land and agrarian reform in South Africa series; no. 8)

    Google Scholar 

  • Anseeuw W, Kapuya T, Saruchera D (2012) Zimbabwe’s agricultural reconstruction: present state, ongoing projects and prospects for reinvestment. Dev Bank South Afr 32:1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Boja C (2011) Clusters models, factors and characteristics. Int J Econ Pract Theor 1(1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bratton M (1986) Farmer organizations and food production in Zimbabwe. World Dev 14(3):367–384

    Google Scholar 

  • Chifamba O (2020) Zimbabwe: critical for tobacco farmers to comply with production legislation. https://allafrica.com/stories/202005190500.html. Accessed 20 Aug 2020

  • Chikwati E, and Mutasa M (2018) Farmers still to benefit from $19m tobacco levy the Herald Zimbabwe. https://www.herald.co.zw/farmers-still-to-benefit-from-19m-tobacco-levy/. Accessed Aug 2020

  • Child G, Child B (2015) The conservation movement in Zimbabwe: an early experiment in devolved community based regulation. Afr J Wildl Res 45(1):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiweshe MK (2011) Farm level institutions in emergent communities in post fast track Zimbabwe: case of Mazowe district. Rhodes University, SA

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole DL, Cole JS (2006) Tobacco research and development. University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Publications

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins J, Lappe FM (1977) Multinational agribusiness and the global supermarket. Soc Sci 3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawes M, Murota R, Jera C, Masara C, Sola P (2009) Inventory of smallholder contract farming practices in Zimbabwe. SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, The Hague

    Google Scholar 

  • Galvez-Nogales E (2010) Agro-based clusters in developing countries: staying competitive in a globalized economy. Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Occasional Paper (FAO)

    Google Scholar 

  • Heald S (1991) Tobacco, time, and the household economy in two Kenyan societies: the Teso and the Kuria. Comp Stud Soc Hist 33:130–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herald Business (2014) Deforestation cause for concern. https://www.herald.co.zw/deforestation-cause-for-concern/#:~:text=Why%20is%20EMA%20concerned%20about%20deforestation%3F%20EMA%20is,about%20deforestation%20because%20it%20leads%20to%20land%20degradation. Accessed 23 July 2020

  • Ingstrup MB (2014) When firms take the lead in facilitating clusters. Eur Plan Stud 22(9):1902–1918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jayne TS, Mather D, Mghenyi E (2010) Principal challenges confronting smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. World Dev 38(10):1384–1398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanduza A (1983) The tobacco industry in Nothern Rhodesia 1912–1938. Int J Afri Hist Stud 16(2):201–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambin EF, Turner BL, Geist HJ, Agbola SB, Angelsen A, Bruce JW, Coomes OT, Dirzo R, Fischer G, Folke C, George P (2001) The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths. Glob Environ Change 11(4):261–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langa V (2017) $8m afforestation funds lie idle. Newsday Zimbbabwe. https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/12/8m-afforestation-funds-lie-idle/

  • Leaver R (2004) Measuring the supply response function of tobacco in Zimbabwe. Agrekon

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipton M (2005) The family farm in a globalizing world: the role of crop science in alleviating poverty (vol 40). International Food PolicyRes Inst

    Google Scholar 

  • Little PD, Watts M (1994) Living under contract: contract farming and agrarian transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. University of Wisconsin Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Mafeje A (2003) The agrarian question, access to land, and peasant responses in sub-Saharan Africa. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Maguranyanga B, Moyo S (2006) Land tenure in post FTLRP Zimbabwe: key strategic policy development issues. African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Harare

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin R, Sunley P (2003) Deconstructing clusters: chaotic concept or policy panacea? J Econ Geogr 3(1):5–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Matondi BT (2012)  Zimbabwe’s  fast track land reform. Zed Books Ltd

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazwi F, Chambati W, Mutodi K (2018) Contract farming arrangement and poor resourced farmers in Zimbabwe. Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies, Policy Brief, June 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Morosini P (2004) Industrial clusters, knowledge integration, and performance. World Dev 32(2):305–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Motoyama Y (2008) What was new about the cluster theory? What could it answer and what could it not answer? Econ Dev Q 22(4):353–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moyo S (2007) Emerging land tenure issues in Zimbabwe. African Institute for Agrarian Studies since 1980. In: Land and agrarian reform in Zimbabwe: beyond white settler capitalism, pp 29–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyo M (2019) Household and community effects of contract farming after the fast track land reform programme: a case study of Mazowe tobacco farmers. Unpublished PhD thesis

    Google Scholar 

  • Mutopo P (2011) Women’s struggles to access and control land and livelihoods after fast track land reform in Mwenezi District, Zimbabwe. J Peasant Stud 38:1021–1046

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ncube S (2018) Colonial Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry: global, regional and local relations, 1947–1979. Doctoral dissertation, University of the Free State

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortmann GF, King RP (2007) Agricultural cooperatives I: history, theory and problems. Agrekon 46(1):18–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phimister IR (1988) An economic and social history of Zimbabwe, 1890–1948: capital accumulation and class struggle. Addison-Wesley Longman Limited

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter ME (2000) Location, competition, and economic development: local clusters in a global economy. Econ Dev Q 14(1):15–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter ME (2007) Clusters and economic policy: aligning public policy with the new economics of competition. Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubert SC (1998) A most promising weed: a history of tobacco farming and labor in colonial Zimbabwe, 1890–1945. Ohio University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachikonye L (2016) Old wine in new bottles? Revisiting contract farming after agrarian reform in Zimbabwe. Rev Afr Polit Econ 43:86–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saether B (2014) Socio-economic unity in the evolution of an agricultural cluster. Eur Plann Stud 22(12):2605–2619

    Google Scholar 

  • Scoones I, Mavedzenge B, Murimbarimba F, Sukume C (2018) Tobacco, contract farming, and agrarian change in Zimbabwe. J Agrar Change 18(1):22–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scoones I, Wilson K (1989) Household, lineage groups and ecological dynamics issues for livestock research and development in Zimbabwe’s communal lands. Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), University of Zimbabwe (UZ)

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott P (1952) The tobacco industry of Southern Rhodesia. Econ Geogr 28(3):189–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shonhe T (2019) Tractors and agrarian transformation in Zimbabwe: insights from Mvurwi. Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA), Working Paper 021, Mar 2019

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqui K (1998) ‘Agricultural exports, poverty and ecological crisis’: case study of Central American countries. Econ Polit Wkly A128–A136

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh S (2002) Contracting out solutions: political economy of contract farming in the Indian Punjab. World Dev 30:1621–1638

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sukume C, Mavedzenge B, Murimbarima F, Scoones I (2015) Space, markets and employment in agricultural development: Zimbabwe country report

    Google Scholar 

  • TIMB, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (2017) Tobacco industry and marketing board annual statistical report. Tobacco industry marketing board

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (2016) Zimbabwe tobacco today: magazine of the Zimbabwe tobacco association. Mediaserve advertising and marketing

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Moses Moyo

Authors
  1. Moses Moyo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Horman Chitonge

  2. Director of research and programmes, Good Governance Africa, johannesburg, South Africa

    Ross Harvey

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Moyo, M. (2021). Rethinking Land Use After Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe: A Clustering Approach. In: Chitonge, H., Harvey, R. (eds) Land Tenure Challenges in Africa. Economic Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82852-3_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82852-3_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82851-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82852-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation